As we made it around the back side of the mansion by the water, the wind blew my hair straight and kept yanking my veil. So the trial hairstyle looked okay at first and then by the end it looked like I put my head outside a car window going 90 miles an hour. Definitely not cute! All in all, it was a great photo shoot and I felt more at ease that come wedding day I already had individual pictures done and could relax.

The most annoying part of the whole shoot, was that after I changed back into my normal clothes…I realized there were a ton of gnats trapped in the tulle in my dress! EEKK! So I had to pick all of them out so by the wedding day I didn’t have dead bugs falling out of my dress down the isle. hahaha! I posted some pictures below of the shoot:

P.S. I made the bouquet by myself! Dozen roses from Publix for $12.99, flower tape, and one of those pearl slip-on bands from Michaels!

So rewind back to us getting on the plane from Orlando, FL to Grand Rapids, MI on July 23rd. I upgraded us to first class seats, because actually with Airtran you get 2 checked bags each, free drinks, etc…and with all of our bags that we were bringing up for the second reception, I just convinced myself it was worth it!

First Class Baby!

Wedding Rings!

We took full advantage of the unlimited open bar/mini boozes! I realized during this whole trip that using the “It’s Our Honeymoon” card really had it’s advantages. We drank whiskey & coke the whole plane ride there, and when they started to get low, the flight attendant gave us a whole stash and sadly told the other passengers that there wasn’t any whiskey left….SCORE! (We did end up running out of coke, so we were drinking the whiskey straight and chasing it with Sour Patch Kids!)

Whiskey & Coke

While we were flying over Jacksonville, we could actually see our apartment in downtown Jax! So we took a picture! And if you’re wondering why we flew out of Orlando instead of Jacksonville…it’s because Jacksonville flights were $200 a person more expensive. So for the price of just one Jacksonville plane ticket we got 2 Orlando flights that were direct!!!

Downtown Jacksonville

We got our use out of Jeremy’s wedding gift on the plane! I got him an IPad for his wedding gift, which he was shocked about. I had him convinced that you aren’t supposed to get each other anything expensive for a gift, it should be a token gift such as cufflinks. haha! I love to spoil him! So we watched Amadeus, sipped whiskey & cokes, and relaxed before the big Michigan Reception started the next day.

Rock me Amadeus

Once we landed, we all headed out to San Chez for dinner. (which is one of our favorite places to eat in downtown Grand Rapids) It was such a nice relaxing dinner, and having my mother, father, and sister there also meant so much! The joining of two families really is such a beautiful thing!

***Stay tuned because I’m posting all of the Michigan Wedding Reception pictures next!!

We had our ceremony rehearsal on July 16 at St. Catherine’s with the whole bridal party and Father Boddie. I can’t tell you how overwhelmed I felt after we left the rehearsal. There were so many things to remember and it felt like everything was going super fast! I probably stayed up until about 1am the night before just going through the ceremony schedule in my head so I didn’t forget anything. (Thankfully everything worked out beautifully the next day!)

Anyways, onto the Rehearsal…we had our Rehearsal Dinner at Blue Fish which is a fabulous restaurant located in Avondale. I had a groom’s cake made for Jeremy at the dinner which consisted of Lemon Cake with Raspberry Cream Cheese Filling decorated with an FSU spear!! It was delicious! The chocolate football on top was amazing too! Jeremy setup his camera on a tripod at the dinner so everyone could have their picture taken, which worked out perfect! We posted pictures below so take a look!

We have sooooo many pictures from the past few weeks, so bear with us as we finish unpacking from the honeymoon and upload them all. For a sneak peek from our wedding photographers, click here -> FL Wedding Sneak Peek!!!

Check back soon as we continue to update with more pictures, and more updates from us as we enjoy our newlywed life! :0)

I wanted the house to look spotless when everyone got here, that I found myself ironing the sheets, bedskirt, and pillows, spot cleaning the carpet, doing 5 loads of laundry, and cooking more Key Lime Fudge then I probably needed to make. Although we didn’t make it to the gym tonight, we got sooo much done around the house!

Now that we have almost finished up all wedding related tasks and cleaned the whole house, I think we can finally relax. (let the nervousness/excitement of the wedding kick in) We are so excited to be surrounded by our family and friends! Cheers!

Saturday, we met up with Jan Tucker at Oak Street Beachstro right on the beach. Such a nice spot and you really feel like you aren’t even in downtown Chicago. We did a lot of shopping (more like window shopping), and stopped at the Hershey’s store for a quick treat. I have to admit, I really wanted to jump in line with all the kids and push all the buttons, levers, and turn wheels on this huge candy machine to get my bucket of candy, but I resisted and instead cheered them on.

Later that night we had a fabulous dinner at Cafe Iberico. We ordered marinated mushrooms, baked goat cheese dip, manchego cheese, mussels, shrimp, paella, etc. There was soo much food, but it was all soo good!!!! And the prices really weren’t bad at all either. Such a fun place to eat…I love tapas restaurants because of the little samples you can get of everything.

After dinner, we went to a few bars/clubs to dance and drink (although after eating all that amazing Spanish cuisine, I don’t think anyone wanted one). We ran into sooo many other bachelorette parties out and about. Also, we saw a bunch of brides & grooms at the bars as well. I definitely would not be wearing my expensive wedding dress into a dingy bar….but that’s just my opinion.

On Sunday we all left to go back to the “real world”, but Chicago treated us well! Can’t wait to visit Chicago again. I LOVE that city!!!! Thank you to Howard, Lorrie, Becca, Erin, and Nadine who came out to celebrate with me! Love you all! Check out the pictures below from the weekend!

We opened gifts, drank, ate, talked, and fortunately TLC was having a marathon of the show Bridezilla on so we were all delighted to watch it! Those girls are just soo crazy!!! Also, thank you to Mr. Czubko for sending down the engagement poster he made. It looked awesome outside the house! I added some photos below of the shower…I had to omit a few because after a few drinks I pulled out the wedding dress to show everyone, so I want to keep it a secret of what it looks like to everyone else! Enjoy!!

DECLARE @DaysLeft float
DECLARE @WeeksLeft float

SET @DaysLeft = DATEDIFF(day, GETDATE(), ’07/17/2010′)
SET @WeeksLeft = @DaysLeft/7

PRINT @DaysLeft
PRINT @WeeksLeft

Jeremy and I had the opportunity to taste all of our choices for dinner at the Florida Reception a few months ago and we were very impressed! When we arrived, we were thinking it would be a small taste of the entrée, and maybe the appetizers if we were lucky. When we arrived, we were presented with all of the appetizers we had chosen, and FULL portions of the 3 entrées!! And yes, we ate EVERYTHING! I think that was the most delicious and largest lunch I have ever had! We definitely gorged ourselves that day, but hey…it’s for the wedding!

Below are some pictures that we took of the food we tasted. We are going to be serving everything below, except for the Chicken Cordon Bleu appetizers (I wasn’t too thrilled) and the Red Snapper with crawfish (that too I wasn’t too thrilled about). Enjoy the pictures below…they will definitely make your mouth water!!